Tags: Japanese art

The fascinating works of Yuki Matsueda pop out of their box enclosures and frames, penetrating the viewer’s space. Yolks fly out of eggs, figures jump out of exit signs, and kings and queens leap out of playing cards. Matsueda was born in Ibaraki prefecture in 1980. He won the 2010 Nippon Paint Design Center Award and graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a PhD in 2010. He has shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Asia and Europe.…

Like most of the internet, Japanese artist Yoko Tanji has an obsession with cats. Lucky for us, she’s doing something about it, creating a large body of work revolving around the feline species and their human companions. Her work ranges in style from sketched pen drawings to watercolors and digital illustrations, while her cleverly executed themes range from the somber to the brilliantly funny. Despite her varied modes of bringing the work to life, each piece stands well on its own and is created with a perfection unmatched by most artists.…

What would it look like to have your physical and mental scars in full view to the world? Maybe it would look something like these face drawings by artist Pinpin Co. Working closely with her subjects, she often spends over 5 hours drawing intricately on their faces and striving to bring out the deeper aspects of their inner and outer landscapes. The results of her work, created with a fine 0.38mm gel ink pen, are often beautiful and sometimes a bit disturbing.…

Japanese culture is famous for its highly unique character design… from the iconic Hello Kitty, to artistic manhole covers and sometimes totally weird product mascots. To many eyes, these characters don’t even make much sense with what they are selling… but that’s a big part of the charm. Taking his cues from this unusual design sense, Argentinian artist Juan Molinet is creating an entire series of fake Japanese characters marketing equally fake products. The colorful figures are quirky and completely spot-on.…

Don’t be fooled, the image above is not real fish, but a carefully painted series of layers encased in clear resin! The work of Japanese painter Riusuke Fukahori, the pieces are incredibly hard to distinguish from actual living fish… so much so, we included some shots of him making the paintings below.…

Freelance Japanese artist Naochika Morishita (森下 直親/ もりした なおちか) uses delicate brush strokes to paint bleak futures of warring mech robots. His book of collected works, Hagane Bito, is filled with epic battle scenes of anime mechs in locations from outer space to the Jurassic period. Here is a small sample of his large collection. Prepare for battle!